A27050:739
A treatise of episcopacy confuting by Scripture, reason, and the churches testimony that sort…
A treatise of episcopacy confuting by Scripture, reason, and the churches testimony that sort of diocesan churches, prelacy and government, which casteth out the primitive church-species, episcopacy, ministry and discipline and confoundeth the Christian world by corruption, usurpation, schism and persecution : meditated in the year 1640, when the et cætera oath was imposed : written 1671 and cast by : published 1680 by the importunity of our superiors, who demand the reasons of our nonconformity / by Richard Baxter.A treatise of episcopacy confuting by Scripture, reason, and the churches testimony that sort of diocesan churches, prelacy and government, which casteth out the primitive church-species, episcopacy, ministry and discipline and confoundeth the Christian world by corruption, usurpation, schism and persecution : meditated in the year 1640, when the et cætera oath was imposed : written 1671 and cast by : published 1680 by the importunity of our superiours, who demand the reasons of our nonconformity / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for Nevil Simmons, 1681
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
It is for the quality of the crime itself, that the Magistrate is to punish (as Murder, Theft, Adultery, Blasphemy &c.) Whether it be in the unbaptized, or baptized, or excommunicate: But it is for Impenitency only in some crime that the Church doth excommunicate. And if the Magistrate must imprison or kill men properly for Impenitency, it must be as it aggravateth the crime itself, and it may be as well the unbaptized as the baptized, for he is the Governor of both: It is therefore a mere fiction of Papists Church Tyrants, that there is such a difference between the unbaptized and the excommunicate, as that the first must not have Church privileges till they desire them, and the later may have them if they be but compelled to keep them, or return to them by the sword.
It is for the quality of the crime itself, that the Magistrate is to punish (as Murder, Theft, Adultery, Blasphemy &c.) Whether it be in the unbaptized, or baptized, or excomunicate: But it is for Impenitency only in some crime that the Church doth excommunicate. And if the Magistrate must imprison or kill men properly for Impeni•encie, it must be as it aggravateth the crime itself, and it may be as well the unbaptized as the baptized, for he is the Governour of both: It is therefore a meer fiction of Papists Church Tyrants, that there is such a difference between the unbaptized and the excommunicate, as that the first must not have Church priviledges till they disire them, and the later may have them if they be but commpelled to keep them, or return to them by the sword.
And so schismatically different are they from the Catholic Church for many hundred years after Christ, as directly to contradict them. For all the Canons as well as the History tell us, that all the ancient Churches when they had excommunicated a sinner, would not receive him till he had penitently begged readmission: Yea they used to cast down themselves on the earth (as even great Theodosius did before Ambrose when but suspended), and to beg pardon and readmission with tears: nay for great faults, this was not received till many months or years continued penitence, showed their desires to be sincere; and now Prelates must have a Blasphemer, or a common Drunkard, compelled by the sword to say that he repenteth, that he may the next day have the honour and privilege of a Christian: Communicant, whether he will or not. O kind-natured-cruel-Church